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June 2011
Contemporary Art from Croatia and Serbia
Works by Artists in Residence: Presentation 2/2011
KulturKontakt Austria extends a cordial invitation to the opening of an exhibition of works by the three artists Nina Kurtela and Tina Gverović of Croatia and Tanja Juričan of Serbia. The artists are each spending three months in Vienna as the guests of KulturKontakt Austria (KKA) in the context of the KKA Artists in Residence scholarship programme.
Vernissage: Thursday, 9 June 2011, 7 p.m.
Exhibition duration: 10 June – 29 July 2011, Mon. – Fri., 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Location: Galerie ArtPoint, Universitätsstraße 5, 1010 Vienna
The project “LACUNA” by the Croatian artist Nina Kurtela deals with the nomadic lifestyle that many contemporary artists lead. The terms “flexibility” and “mobility” have become fixtures in the everyday vocabulary of the Western world. Artists in particular are strongly affected by so-called “modern nomadism”.
In her project “LACUNA”, Kurtela exhibits her personal possessions and transforms the gallery into a private place in which past, present and future converge. As an artist whose artistic existence depends on continuous travel, and for whom, consequently, the meaning of the word “home” is becoming increasingly complex, Kurtela asks herself: “What happens with the things that we possess, that we own; what are their values? Are they financial and/or emotional, nostalgic? Where is home; is it a location, or a feeling, or a person…? What do the objects that we own present? Us? Is the gallery our home? Is a residency programme our home? Or is it the work we do?”
An essential aspect of the artistic practice of Tina Gverović is her exploration of the various possibilities for integrating drawings, sculptures, video works, photographs and text into the architectonic context of an exhibition space. The displayed work “News Keeps Us Awake” is an installation in several parts: images of monumental underwater ruins and of the interior of an old nuclear bunker, a construction that is intended to resemble a composite of fragments of a ship, airplane or tank, and a projection of still images. The central theme of the installation is the end and the beginning of life. The machine parts which Gverović presents, witnesses of a past epoch, become overgrown with underwater organisms over the course of time and are consequently taken over by new life. Gverović writes: “In the case of both the bunker and the ruins, these subjects’ participation in the forward motion of time and progress has been arrested, and looking at them now, they take on the role of the un-dead, irrepressible and disturbing intrusions into the present day, entirely displaced, but vital as live reminders of recent events that aren’t ever fully dealt with.”
Tanja Juričan’s project “Pseudomorph” consists of three works. Based on her experience with visually impaired and blind people, she created the video “Alteration”, a documentation of a performance in the form of an interview with a man who has been blind since birth. Through the way the man handles an icon-shaped object, Juričan questions the validity of icons and devotional objects, focusing on the question of their demystification and the deformation of the original idea of intuitive experience.
Her work “Hypostasis” is to be seen as a follow-up on this video: A face cast in porcelain allows many associations, but ultimately remains merely an attempt to create an image of reality. “In the testing and representation of their forms, works reveal nothing about themselves but the presentational fact, evoking the feeling of reality lost due to the use of representation and means of reproduction.”
Juričan’s third work, “Elucidation”, uses Thomas More’s philosophical and political work “Utopia”, written in the 16th century. With the help of a computer, the text, translated into Braille, is projected onto a panel with integrated light sources. Juričan writes about her work: “The act of translating the text into the symbols of a tactile medium reveals the intention of achieving immediate and more intimate contact and experience than can be obtained through visual and intellectual perception. Nevertheless, through projection onto a flat panel, the sign itself is deformed and narrowed to become merely a visual sensation, a visual representation of itself.”
THE ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE PROGRAMME
KulturKontakt Austria has invited 12 young artists to spend time in Vienna as Artists in Residence in 2011. During their respective three-month stays in Vienna, these artists are also being given an opportunity to present their works, including new ones created in Vienna, in four exhibitions held at Galerie ArtPoint. KulturKontakt Austria’s Artists in Residence Programme is for artists from Eastern and South Eastern Europe and Turkey, and has been offered since 1992. Since then, more than 5,550 artists have applied and more than 230 of them have participated in the programme. With its Artists in Residence Programme, KulturKontakt Austria enables artists to make contacts and engage in fruitful exchange in the Austrian and international art scenes.
Tanja Jurican
Born 1980, lives and works in Serbia
Graduated as a painter from the Faculty of Arts in Belgrade (RS) in 2009.
Work biography
2010 Finalist, exhibition of “Dimitrije Basicevic Mangelos Award 2010”, Belgrade (RS)
2010 Production award “Dimitrije Basicevic Mangelos 2010” (RS)
2010 Group exhibition “Common ground”, ITS Z-1, Ritopek, 2010 (RS)
2008 Workshop “BUG”, Kontekst gallery, Belgrade (RS)
2008 Art fest, Novi Sad (RS)
2007 Workshop “1/1”, Kontekst gallery, Belgrade (RS)
2006 Biennale of Student Collage, Arts University Gallery BK, Belgrade (RS)
Artwork chronology
“Imagine Imagineés”, 2010
“Transubstantiation”, 2010
“Creation project”, 2009-2010
“The Bible”, 2009
“Grandma Lula and Roberto” 2008
“Ballet Blues”, 2008
“Child happiness”, 2007
Tina Gverović
Finished BA in Fine Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb (HR) and MA at Jan van Eyck Akademie – Post Graduate Centre for Art, Design and Theory in Maastricht (NL)
She is currently in her final year of practice based PhD at Middlesex University in London.
Awards
2008 Gabrielle Parker
2006 Siemens Award
2006 Arts Link
2006 Radoslav Putar Award
2005 Croatian Artists Association Award
2002 Art Council England
1998 UNESCO
Solo Exhibitions (selection)
2010 “Uncomparables. Forming a Suspicious State”, with Sinisa Ilic, Gallery Nova,
Zagreb (HR)
2009 “This group will never disappear”, curated by WHW, Lenbachhaus Kubus,
München (DE)
2008 “Constant traveler”, BOP Gallery, Zagreb (HR)
2007 “The Visit”, Miroslav Kraljević, Zagreb (HR)
2007 “At first sight”, Gallery Blickensdorff, Berlin (DE)
2006 “Spies and subjects”, Notice Gallery, London (UK)
2005 “Ways Out”, Media Art Centre, Seattle (USA)
2004 “Six rooms”, Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik (HR)
2004 “Diary of drowning”, PM Gallery, Zagreb (HR)
Group exhibitions
2010 “Infinite Exposure”, Exterritory Tel Aviv (IL)/Larnaca (CY)
2009 “Croatian Contemporary Art – Now or Never”, MUU and FAFA Gallery, Helsinki (FI) 2007 “Croatian Contemporary Art”, curated by Jerica Ziherl, Lalit Kala, New Delhi (IN)
2007 “Ground lost”, curated by WHW, Forum Stadtpark, Graz (AT)
2006 “Here and now, present but not concrete”, curated by WHW, Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana (SI)
2005 “Continental Breakfast”, curated by Breda Kolar Sluga, Modern Gallery, Maribor (SI) 2005 “Linear Structures”, curated by Branko Franceschi, Riga Gallery, Riga (LV)
2004 “ev+a”, curated by Zdenka Badovinec, Limerick City Galerija, Limerick (IE)
Nina Kurtela
Born in Zagreb, currently working and living on relation between Berlin and
Zagreb and thinking and creating in relation between visual arts, video, performance and
contemporary dance and choreography.
Education/Scholarships/Grants
KulturKontakt Austria Artist in Residence Program, Vienna
HAVC – Croatian Audiovisual Centar, film production grant
UdK Berlin and Ernst Busch Berlin – Contemporary Dance, Choreography, Context at the Co-operative Dance Education Centre Berlin (3 years education program - scholarship from City of Zagreb) 2007-2010 /
DanceWEB, ImpulsTanz Vienna, Scholarship program
Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb (MA degree)
CEPUS Faculty of Fine Arts (Atelier of Body Art), Scholarship program, Brno
Awards
2010 Youth Artists Prize CEE 2010 – Henkel Art Award
2007 Essl Award 2007, Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg (AT)
2005/2006 Rectors award for the year 2005/2006, The University of Zagreb (HR)
2005 Visura Aperta Momiano ’05 emerging artist award; festival of visual and audio medias (for video work DanceKingQueens), Momjan (HR)
Selected works
“Vešomat”, solo exhibition, socio-cultural installation (realized with a support of
Gallery VN Zagreb)
“Transformace”, experimental film, durational performance (co produced by
HAVC Zagreb, HUTZ Berlin and Uferstudios Berlin)
“The Store”, together with Marjana Krajač and Iva Korenčić, performance-installation (production: Sodaberg, realized with the support of City Office for Culture Zagreb and the support of Gallery Nova Zagreb)
”Autoshow”, solo exhibition, happening-installation-sculpture (realized with the support of City Office for Culture Zagreb, support of INA artist donation and support of Gallery HDLU Zagreb)
”Happy Birthday”, solo exhibition, installation realized with a support of Gallery Križić-Roban, Zagreb
“DanceKingQueens”, video installation (co-produced by the Visura Aperta Festival Momjan)
As a dancer/performer she collaborates with many different performance artists on different
projects, among some names: Anat Eisenberg, Isabelle Schad, Marjana Krajač, Boris
Charmatz. At the moment she is busy with the on-going collaborative project Phrase3.0 that she established together with Dragana Bulut, Ligia Manuela Lewis, Marysia Zimpel, Alexander B. Jenkins, Gilad Ben Ari, Tomislav Feller and Andrej Mirčev
COMING SOON
Works of Artists in Residence: Presentation 3/2011
Presentation of works by the Artists in Residence Behçet Aktaş (Turkey), Doplgenger (Isidora Ilić & Boško Prostran) (Serbia), Olivia Mihalţianu (Romania)
Vernissage: Tuesday, 6 September 2011, 7 p.m.
Exhibition duration: 7 September – 7 October 2011
Location: Galerie ArtPoint, Universitätsstraße 5, 1010 Vienna
